Editing Date palm (section)

== Ecology ==
[[File:Dubas sootymould2.jpg|thumb|right|Sooty mould, nymph and larval cuticle of ''[[Ommatissus lybicus]]'', Oman]]
{{Further|List of date palm diseases}}
A major palm pest, the red palm beetle (''[[Rhynchophorus ferrugineus]]''), currently poses a significant threat to date production in parts of the Middle East as well as to iconic landscape specimens throughout the Mediterranean world. Another significant insect pest is ''[[Ommatissus lybicus]]'', sometimes called the "dubas bug", whose sap sucking results in [[sooty mould]] formation.

In the 1920s, eleven healthy [[Medjool]] palms were transferred from Morocco to the United States where they were tended by members of the [[Chemehuevi]] tribe{{which|date=January 2015}} in a remote region of Nevada. Nine of these survived and in 1935, cultivars were transferred to the U.S. Date Garden in [[Indio, California]]. Eventually this stock was reintroduced to Africa and led to the U.S. production of dates in [[Yuma, Arizona]] and [[Bard, California]].<ref name="ICN_Allen">{{cite news |last=Allen |first=Lee |date=25 April 2014 |title=How One Indian Couple Saved 'The Fruit of Kings' |work=Indian Country News |url=https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/how-one-indian-couple-saved-the-fruit-of-kings |access-date=2021-11-02 |archive-date=2 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102163119/https://indiancountrytoday.com/archive/how-one-indian-couple-saved-the-fruit-of-kings |url-status=live }}</ref>